Auto Parts Blog

Peter Nitoglia, vice president of Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif.-based CarSound Exhaust System Inc. does not mind that many of his customers call his company Magnaflow Performance Exhaust, which is the name of its first line of performance mufflers.

“Magnaflow is a product trade name that has gained more notoriety than the actual company name,” he admits. “But we don’t mind that people use it or think of us that way.”

Perhaps that’s because CarSound’s success has more to do with its marketing savvy than being in the right place at the right time. The market for catalytic converters, which is CarSound’s flagship product, has undergone significant growth since CarSound’s entrance into the market in the ’80s, primarily
due to impacts from government regulations and myths about
car performance.

CarSound timed its entry into the market during the “grey market” phenomenon, when European vehicles were independently imported and sold in the United States. Because these cars could be purchased in Europe without catalytic converters and they could be sold for considerably more in America with a catalytic converter, CarSound’s products were in demand.

In the late ’70s, a myth flourished that removing cars’ converters would enhance performance. This prompted the EPA to enforce emissions regulations and secure a market for CarSound. Nitoglia spoke with Venture North America about how the firm continues to adapt to the ever-evolving auto market.

Venture North America: How is the globalization of the auto industry affecting you?
Peter Nitoglia: We’re certainly trying to position ourselves in these foreign markets. We have an affiliated distribution and sales office in Rome, which has been there almost 20 years. We also have a warehouse, distribution and sales office in Berlin, and we have a distribution center in Spain. South America follows closely with a strong network of independent distributors.

VNA: Is the market changing?
PN: [Yes], we see that with different economic times approaching; more customers are maintaining older cars rather than buying new cars. We’re concentrating on building products for people who are maintaining cars as they age beyond 6 to 10 years. We’re also trying to design our catalytic converters to be more user-friendly.

VNA: How so?
PN: We’re developing a broad range of direct-fit converters, which are a bolt-on product, as opposed to a universal product. The universal converter requires an installation shop to have specialized fabrication skills to install it. A direct-fit is something that a trained mechanic can install.

We’ve noticed a trend where shops with fabrication skills are gradually fading out and being replaced by shops that offer very quick service and turnaround for such items as brakes, tune-ups and exhaust service. We want to make our products easy to install to take advantage of this new trend.

We introduced direct-fit converters in the ’90s, but it accounted for a smaller percentage of our sales. We now see it as being the area of growth for our products. Our emphasis is in developing these and expanding sales gains with broad ranges of products.

VNA: So you developed this line in the ’90s, but it is still evolving?
PN: Yes. We’re continually developing a product line consisting
of thousands of units, which becomes quite a complex task, as each application needs to be designed and developed individually for each variation of car and truck in circulation today.